Janet Lopez and Mandy Denning,
founders of Lil Drive Bys Street Team Todd Price of Drive By Jaeson Hertzberg of Drive By Daniel Fitzgerald of Drive By Chris Perino of Drive By
By Giselle Portuondo
Photos provided by Lil Drive Bys Street Team
Since they met in Jacksonville, 26-year-old Janet Lopez and 18-year-old Mandy Denning have been devoting most of their time to forming a street team for a little band called Drive By. After the release of their first album back in May 2006 entitled I Hate Everyday Without You Kid, Drive By has been busier than ever.
This is where the girls kicked in. Lopez and Denning were at a small club in Jacksonville when they first heard the band play.
“Drive By came out, started their set and I was hooked! They had an amazing sound and great lyrics,” said Lopez, who created the Lil Drive Bys street team with Denning.
After meeting the boys, Denning was impressed not only by their great music but also by their down-to-earth personalities.
“After meeting the guys, I went home and checked out their MySpace. I wanted to help promote them,” she said.
It has been almost a year now since they started work on the street team, and now they have small groups led by Drive By fans in the U.K. and reaching all the way to Australia.
The Lil Drive Bys is mainly in charge of promoting the band and its image. “We promote any and everywhere!” Lopez said. The girls promote the band at local shows and during big arena concerts by handing out flyers with the band’s website and dates for future performances.
When Lopez and Denning get the chance, they travel to see Drive By perform. In one of their last trips the girls flew to Cleveland to help out the band by selling CDs and t-shirts at the merch table. Realizing that some fans couldn’t afford or didn’t have enough money to buy a CD, the girls decided to buy the CDs for them.
The boys in Drive By are now touring non-stop, and during the last two years have had the opportunity to perform with Thrice, Flyleaf and Deftones at the SoundWave Festival in Australia, as well as with Senses Fail and Saosin. During some of the overseas shows the band opened for My Chemical Romance’s “Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge” tour back in 2006. This is actually not an unlikely match given the fact that Drive By’s record label Riot Squad was started by MCR’s band manager Brian Scheckter, who gave Drive By’s lead singer Todd Price the chance to start the band.
The street team’s constant support has helped the band in many ways, from promotion to building groups overseas in which fans from other countries can check out tour dates and news about Drive By. The band will keep on touring, and this year they will perform in New Jersey’s Bamboozle Festival. Not to mention a new album is in the works. Drive By will also appear in Bamboozle Compilation, an album that includes bands like Taking Back Sunday, Thursday, My Chemical Romance and many more.
At the end of our interview, I asked Mandy Denning to give us some tips on how you can start your own Street Team to support a local band whose music you enjoy.
“First you need the drive to do it, because you don’t want [to] slack off after a while. There is always a way to help. Just find out a way to contact the band, [and] ask them questions. If they don’t have a street team, ask if you can start one. Bands really do appreciate any help that you can give them.
“If they already have a street team, join it and participate. You can always start maybe a fan site on the side. It does take a lot of work, and patience, but it’s worth it in the end. And if you love the band, you are willing to promote anyway you can.”
You can support the Lil Drive Bys street team by visiting their page in myspace.com/drive_by_street_team or check out the Drive By website www.drivebyworld.com.
Email Giselle your thoughts: outloud@outloud.com
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